Omaha Beach, D-Day. You enter a Higgins LCVP boat with a few of your fellow soldiers.You enter the driver's seat and steer the ship towards the shore. As you reach the shore, you open the ramp. Suddenly, three machine gunners begin firing at your Higgins boat. Three of the soldiers drop dead, and the others barely make it out, including yourself. You take cover behind a Belgian Gate, and watch as three more Higgins advance toward the shore and open the ramos. The three machine gunners then change their direction of fire onto those boats. You move up slowly on the beach. You take the control point at the center of the beach, firing at the machine gunners. Every time you kill one, another one enemy soldier mans it. The soldiers next to you are killed, and you wonder when it will be your turn to go.
You take cover behind tanks that have been destroyed, and more Belgian gates. As you come to the large wall of rock where the machine gunners are firing from, you meet some resistance. You take out a soldier on the left, and then take cover behind another gate.
There are three large limestone bunkers on Omaha, each one with a machine gun in it. They are on the top of a huge hill, about one hundred feet high, straight up. One the sides are small paths leading to the top. On the path on the right is a machine gun nest, and an enemy soldier is stationed there, firing at you. You quickly take him out and countinue on. You start up the path, but encounter too much resistance to tackle alone. You are quickly mowed down. You then are to respwn at the control point you captured earlier.
Welcome the Battlefield 1942. This level, Omaha Beach, puts you in the shoes of the Allied or Axis forces on D-Day. This is just one of the fifteen or so maps BF1942 has to offer, and is also one of the most enjoyable. You must advance up the beach, capturing all of the control points on the way. After you have taken the beach, you must capture the small town above the beach, which is lined with machine gun nests and enemy tanks. To succeed, you must worl together and, well, just be better and smarter than the enemy.
BF1942 is an online FPS. Up to 64 people can play as the Axis force or the Allied, and can choose what type of soldier they wish to be. You can be a scout, which is a sniper, or you could be a medic, who has the power to heal injured soldiers, or an Anti-Tank, who's primary weapon is a Bazooka, or an Engineer, who can lay mines, or an Assult soldier, who is the basic foot soldier, armed with a small machine gun.
On most of the maps, there are tanks and airplanes scattered about, and anyone is eligable to command one. Driving and flying can be difficult at first, but you will quickly get the hang of it; but flying will almost always be a challenge. But don't be frightened by this; it is still extremely fun.
The maps range from El Amien in the desert, to Battle of the Bulge, in the snow. Some of the maps in BF192 are Pmaha Beach, Stalingrad, Berlin (which is a close combat map- meaning you will be very close to your enemy), Market Garden (there are two large islands, connected by one large bridge and one very small one), Iwo Jima (in which the allies must arrive on the island via Higgins boat or plane and take the enite island), and Kharkov, (in which there is a large plain in Russia, and you must take all of the control points), to name a few.
If you're not in the mood to be a foot soldier, and you have a large carrier ship under your cotrol, you can stay on the ship instead of getting into a Higgins and man an Anti-Aircraft gun, and shoot down enemy planes. There are even some maps where you can man a submarine!
The single player mode is allright, but it is much more challenging in Multiplay. For example, when I play multiplay, sometimes the enemy will be at a machine gun nest, and I will come up right in front of them. They will not see me, even if I start shooting at them. But single player mode is a great place to test your skills, or just to become famililar with the game. But it is not "sad," as PC Gamer said.
You can also download maps from
www.planetbattlefield.com if you get bored with the current ones provided, but I wouldn't recommend doing so; it screwed up my compter. You should get the expansion: The Road to Rome. It adds six new maps nad new weapons. Trust me, the maps are awesome. But, I downloaded the maps
Carentan and
Blitz Creek, and they work fine. So, download these maps becouse not too many people play them but they are awesome! You can create your own maps too, but I have not tried it yet so I really don't know what to do.
BF1942 requires a broadband connection if you want to play it without lag. But, sometimes, even with broadband, maps with more than 50 people can become very laggy. But, alas, this does not take any fun away from the game. You also need a really good computer. If you have anything less than a 64mb video card, then DO NOT get this game. Otherwise, get it. Even if you can't get broadband yet, I would buy it for the singleplayer mode. Who knows, you might even get broadband because of this game.
Overall, this game is one of the greatest games I have ever played, if not the greatest. This game comes highly recommended, and if you have broadband and don't have BF1942, I will come find you and lock you up until you get this game. And, if you have it, look for General Mazza out there.
-Billy Mazza
